218 – al-Ṣayrafī, Abū Saʿīd Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn al-Faḍl *
The shaykh, reliable and trustworthy, Abū Saʿīd Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn al-Faḍl ibn Shādhān, known as al-Ṣayrafī, the son of Abū ʿAmr al-Naysābūrī.
His father, Abū ʿAmr, was well-to-do and used to maintain al-Aṣamm. Al-Aṣamm would not dictate any traditions until this Muḥammad was present, and if Muḥammad missed any part of a session he would repeat it for him; as a result, Muḥammad transmitted a very large corpus from him.
He also studied under Abū ʿAbd Allah Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Shaybānī, Yaḥyā ibn Manṣūr the judge, Abū Ḥāmid Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Shuʿayb, and a group of others.
Those who narrated from him include: Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī, al-Khaṭīb, Abū Ṣāliḥ the muʾadhdhin, Abū Ismāʿīl ʿAbd Allah ibn Muḥammad al-Harawī, Ṭāhir ibn Muḥammad al-Shahhāmī, Abū al-Qāsim ibn Manda, al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl al-Thaqafī, Makkī ibn ʿAllān al-Karjī, Aḥmad ibn Sahl al-Sarrāj, and many others; the last of them to die was ʿAbd al-Ghaffār ibn Muḥammad ibn Shīrawayh the merchant, who lived on until 510 AH.
He passed away in Dhū al-Ḥijjah 421 AH, at the age of a little over ninety.
In that same year the following also died: Abū Bakr al-Ḥīrī (1), and Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Sulaymān al-Salīṭī (2), the Nishapuri grammarian whose reliability was affirmed; he had studied under al-Aṣamm.